KU profs comment on death of artist Benton
By DAN HAWTHORNE
Kansan Staff Reporter
The death of painter Thomas Hart Benton Sunday night prompted comment from several University officials.
Benton, 85, who was well-known for his regionalist paintings of rural mid-Renaissance, was strenken in his studio shortly after completing his final work, a mural depicting the origins of country music.
"He's one of those people that you always thought of as being there," Charles Eldredge, director of the University Art Museum, said Monday. "Although I didn't know him personally, somehow the idea of a world without Thomas Hart Benton is hard to grasp."
Similar feelings were reflected by several others who knew him casually.
Raymond Eastwood, professor emeritus of painting and drawing, remembered Benton as a social acquaintance. "I knew him as I knew most people," he said. "And had a few drills with him." Eastwood said.
"At that time we mostly agreed that nobody else could paint but us," Eastwood reminisced. "We criticized the modern movement as merely invitations of other imitations."
Robert Green, professor of painting and sculpture, said, "He painted like Harry Truman was president. He called a spade a spade with no artificial front. He was quite a real guy."
Benton was perhaps one of the most distinguished muralists of his time. He became popular in the '30s with his realist style in a time when avant-garde was growing in popularity.
"Hisaintinus were often depictions of farmers,
Oikes of the Dust Bowl period, the simple pleasures of life. Edidre said: "Perhaps this is one of the greatest things we can do."
Benton contributed several of his works to the University of Kansas. One of his works, a print, is on display in the Kansas Union. The others, a painting, a sculpture, four drawings, and about a dozen prints, are in storage in the art museum because of their fragility and value.
Benton once said, "If it were left to me, I wouldn't have any museums. I'd have people buy paintings and hang 'em in privies or anywhere anybody had time to look at 'em. Nobody looks at 'em in museums. Nobody goes to museums. I'd like to sell mine to saloons, bawdyhouses, Kiwanis and Rotary Clubs, and Chamber of Commerce—even women's clubs."
Benton was an occasional visitor and lecturer at
the university of Kansas. He admired the Middle West for its openness and freedom.
"The Middle West is, as a whole, the least provincial area in America," Benton once said. "There is among the young artists of the Middle West as a whole, less of that depend, cowardly and servile spirit which as a state of intellectual impotence and neurotic fear is always submitting itself to the last plausible diagnostician 'just to be on the safe side.'"
Green described Benton as the last of the original regionalists.
"Historically his importance will go down as one of the outstanding regionalists, along with John Steward Curry and Grant Wood, who dealt with Americana in his own way." Green said...
Benton's work was admired by each of the professors, although in somewhat different ways.
"He clung tenaciously to native themes and indigenous subjects," Eldredge said. "Benton never lost a subject beneath abstract stylistic devices."
Green said, "He made a unique contribution in individuality as a painter and his spontaneous feeling."
Although Benton began his career in New York and Paris, the center of the growing avant-garde style of the time, he soon turned to the Middle West. Here he acquired considerable fame during and after the Depression for his paintings of the common man and common subjects.
"He was the only painter in this part of the country who has any sort of an international reputation," Eastwood said. "I'm sorry to hear of his death."
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
Tuesday, January 21, 1975 Vol.85-No.73
Federal funds threatened by discrimination charge
The University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas
By DEBBIE GUMP Kansan Staff Reporter
Two University of Kansas students plan to request that all federal funds to the University be withdrawn if the posts of associate and assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs aren't vacated and refilled according to Affirmative Action guidelines.
The students, Muriel Paul, Lawrence graduate student, and Jerry Williams, Kansas City, Kan., senior, said Monday that they would file their complaint with the Justice Department to have it reviewed by the department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) if a meeting Wednesday with
Michael Davis, University general counsel, fails to satisfy them.
The complaint would ask for the removal of Edward Bassett, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs, and Ralph Christoffersen, assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs. The complaint would further request that all federal funds to the University be stopped if the two men aren't removed.
The appointments of Bassett and Christoffersen were confirmed Nov. 4 by Del Shankel, executive vice chancellor, after the Office of Affirmative Action charged that Affirmative Action guidelines weren't followed.
filed a complaint with the regional HEW office charging that discrimination had occurred during the selection process. The complaint won't be investigated until April, according to a receiver letter from HEW acknowledging receipt of the complaint.
After the confirmation, Paul and Williams
Davis will act as the University's liaison with HEW.
"We were giving the institution a grace period hoping they would respond," Williams said. "We are of the opinion that he is treating the situation with benign neglect."
Vick Hamer, acting director of the Office of Affirmative Action, said she supported
Backpacked device gives bicycles an added boost
By MICHAEL WARDROP Kansan Staff Reporter
Did you happen to see a guy riding his bicycle on campus Monday afternoon with a strange looking fan-like device strapped to his back?
That was Doug Andrews, Lawrence senior, testing his backpack engine, a contraption that allows a bicycle to be propelled much as a motorcycle.
Andrews, an aerospace engineering student, learned about the engine last week from a representative of a California firm that sells them for use on hang gliders.
The device was originated on the west coast by hang glider enthusiasts who sought a means to lift off and enjoy prolonged flights. Andrews said Monday.
But I needed to try it out while riding a bicycle and the results have been great," he said. "Some guys have even tried them on snow skis and sleds."
"The device is powered by a regular two-stroke, 12 horsepower engine similar to those used in go-carts." Andrews said. "There is a three blade propeller attached to the engine, and with this you get much the same effect as an airplane engine.
"The back pack, with engine, weighs 35 pounds. It is uncomfortable after wearing it awhile."
"The gasoline mileage has been very good," he said. "Last weekend, I rode for about 30 minutes and used only a quart of fuel."
Speeds of up to 60 m.p.h. may be reached
when using the back pack.
Andrew said,
"In the Midwest hang glider flights are often limited to a few minutes because of a lack of hilly regions and sufficient wind currents," he said. "But the back pack may revolutionize the sport as the power supercharger the engine will allow for extended flights."
"At first, when most people see me, they think I'm just riding a bike," he said. "When, when they hear the engine and see 'I'm not pedding, they really take a second glance. I've had some peculiar looks from motorists and people on the street."
"I'd like to see something like this used as a form of commuter transportation," Andrew said. "A hang truck only needs a few cars for laketies and an even smaller area for landing."
Currently, the back pack engine sells for $695. he said.
A question of cost and true feasibility may limit future widespread use of the back
pack engine, but for now Doug Andrews is quite content amid the stares that he receives while riding his highly unusual machine.
By Chief Photographer GEORGE MILLENER III
the actions of Paul and Williams and would provide them with advice and assistance.
With a little help from Terry Henderson, Lawrence junior, Doug Andrews, Lawrence senior, boards his bicycle during Monday's demonstration of his propellor driven backpack.
There has been no communication between Paul and Williams and the administration either before or since the filing of last semester's complaint.
"We weren't the ones who broke the law," Williams said. "Our meeting with the University attorney is to get their position. We don't feel we have to contact them."
Ambrose Saricks, vice chancellor for academic affairs, said he hadn't attempted to win the election.
"They took the action they saw fit," he said. "I would have been glad to talk to them if they had come to me beforehand or even afterwards."
Paul expressed doubt that Wednesday's meeting with Davis would produce satisfactory results and said that she preferred to have a meeting with Stankel.
"Davis is a servant of the administration. He does not make policy," Paul said. "A meeting with Mr. Shankel would be more effective at this point. I think he should invite us to come in to share our impressions of affirmative action with him.
Shankel said the reason he hadn't talked to Paul and Williams before the filing of the first complaint was that he wasn't aware they had a complaint.
"Mr. Shanker is basically a man of good will, but with position there is sometimes arrogance and unresponsiveness. I think that is what we're saying in Mr. Shanker's case. He has shown arrogance and contempt toward repressed minorities."
"We didn't even know who they were," he said.
Shankel he would let the complain work its way through HEW channels.
"As long as they didn't choose to talk with us before filing the complaint then we're willing to let it go through channels," he said.
In last semester's complaint, Paul and Williams said that the appointment of Bassett and Christoffersen was in violation of both the Kansas Act Against Discrimination and the Civil Rights Act of 1965.
The complaint listed five alleged violations of Affirmative Action guidelines.
1- The advertising of the position as one full-time job and the hiring of two part-time employees resulted in a discrimination with the people who might have applied for a part-time job.
2-The University failed to follow Afirmative Action midlevels.
3- The University didn't adequately seek women or black candidates for the job.
4- The University didn't adequately advocate toward girls in a media oriented toward boys and females.
5-The University didn't appoint a selection committee.
3-The University didn't adequately seek
candidates for the job.
The appointment of a selection committee isn't required by either the Affirmative Action Plan adopted by the University in 1972, or the Affirmative Action Employment Procedures.
Williams said that he and Paul had hired a Topeka lawyer and were considering filing individual suits against Chancellor Archie R. Dykes, Shankel and Ambrose Saricks, vice chancellor for academic affairs.
"The state is not liable, but Dykes, Sarickes and Shankel are," Williams said. "Dykes is responsible for any appointment as chancellor and anything that might happen as a result of those appointments, as he did when he was appointed, because he made the original appointment."
"The first thing we'd ask them to do is to come up with a personal statement apologizing to the administration and faculty and then to commit to it," Williams said. "If they can't do that, we'll ask for their resignations."
Enrollment blues
Rv Staff Photographer DON PIERCE
In the midst of enrollment confusion Friday, Andrew Hardy, Prairie Village sophomore, ponders his next move. Although a record number of students have enrolled for most, he求物 s. p. 3.
Flu bug bites area
By CINDY MORGAN
Kansan Staff Reporter
The flu bug that has hit the nation hard for two weeks has arrived in the Lawrenceville.
The number of cases of infections reported hasn't yet reached epidemic proportions, Martin Wollmann, director of Watkins Memorial Hospital, said Monday.
Watkins is limiting the number of visitors, Wollmann said, as a precaution to protect the in-patients and to prevent the spread of flu.
Lawrence Memorial Hospital has had a slight increase in admissions and a noticeable increase in employ absenteeism connected with flu symptoms, according to Wade Dexter, assistant administrator of the hospital.
Dexter said Lawrence Memorial also was restricting visitors. The hospital is asking people who are already sick to avoid visiting others in the hospital.
The flua strain common throughout the nation is Type A Port Challens. Den Wilcox, director of epidemiology and disease prevention and control of the
Kansas State Health Board, said this strain had been discovered in the coastal areas first and within the last two weeks had moved into the Midwest.
Real influenza is an upper respiratory aliment characterized by chest congestion, muscular aches, dry hacking cough, runny nose and a high fever.
Wilcox said intestinal flu, with vomiting and diarrhea, wasn't really flu at all and could be caused by too much eating and drinking.
The type of flu present in Lawrence has a sudden onset and lasts three to five days. It could have more severe secondary cases for people and young children, Wollmann said.
There is no specific cure, but rest, fluids, and aspirin are recommended. A person with a disease such as diabetes should seek advice from a doctor if it he suspects he has the flu, he said.
Wilcox said that many cases of influenza had been diagnosed in about two weeks ago and that the flu had recently spread to Topeka.